“Did You Know?” Part I: More offshore oil and gas wells and structures are retired than developed annually!

There’s an important discussion happening throughout the country right now about the U.S.’s place in the global energy markets. Recent reports have demonstrated that our country the world’s largest energy producer, thanks to spectacular advances in discovering new opportunities onshore and offshore, as well as technological innovations tied to actual exploration.

As we listen to these developments or read about them, we can forget that industry is also hard at work decommissioning previously used wells and structures. Check out this graphic below, indicating the Gulf of Mexico’s offshore industry’s annual amount of wells/structures developed compared to retirements. Since 2007, more wells and structures have been plugged and removed than actually drilled and installed.